The Study On Positive Transfer Of L1 Reading Strategy To EFL Reading From Cognitive Perspective

Reading as one of the essential skills in EFL teaching and learning has been attracting wide attention since the enterprise of EFL pedagogy began to take shape and only with strengthened reading skills, will EFL learners make progress and attain greater development in other academic fields. The development of reading strategy remains a practical concern on the part of EFL learners. In the field of transfer study, behaviorism and cognitivism have different focus; the former regards learners'L1 as a decisive factor, the latter emphases learners'role in EFL learning.The purpose of the thesis is to address the issue of reading strategy transfer from cognitive perspective, examining the positive effects of learner's reading strategy used in their L1 on their EFL reading, so as to find certain relationships between Chinese learners'L1 reading strategy and EFL one.The study proves that learners play a vital role in their EFL learning from cognitive perspective. The Author underpins the importance of training effective reading strategy in L1 as a means of ability fostering required by quality education in China, instead of reforming learner's repertoire of reading strategy of EFL, since it takes time and effort before their reading strategy become adequately developed and automatized.In order to explore the reading strategy transfer from L1 to EFL, this study will address the question of reading strategy transfer by firstly examining what researches have revealed about learning strategy and its transfer in general, then specifically examining studies that focus on reading strategy transfer, and finally discussing causes from a cognitive perspective in the light of evidence suggested in experiment designed among college English majors in EFL instructional context. Three hypotheses proposed in the process of this research.A questionnaire was used for examining the reading strategy transfer from L1 to L2. Totally, one hundred and thirteen third year college English Majors from Bohai Vocational Technical College are chosen to participate this study. Further more, the writer selected some of the subjects to carry on the specific investigation by interview in order to avoid the limitation of single questionnaire study. The data collection is completed from September 2010 to December 2010.Through the detailed research and discussion on the collected data, the writer finds that there is transfer of reading strategies from L1 to EFL study in the process of EFL reading of the Chinese college English majors; a positive transfer of reading strategies from L1 to EFL shows its significance on cognitive, metacognitive, and compensatory aspects; Chinese EFL learners who always get more achievements in EFL reading are likely to employ verity of strategies in both L1 and EFL reading processes. Thus the findings of the present study indicates that what accounts in the field of a positive strategy transfer from L1 to EFL reading is how to train our students to make good use of the L1 rather than a whole ignorance of the role L1 may play in EFL. Teaching students how to make use of the strategies and background knowledge they gain from their L1 to improve their L2 reading comprehension and how to monitor the reading process are some of the important factors that teachers should be consider. Through the research of learning strategy transfer, the author wishes to find a new way to enhance students'reading proficiency.